Cavaliers and Terrapins Meet Sunday for ACC Championship
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| No. 8 Virginia vs. No. 7 Maryland | |
| Date & Time | Sun., Nov. 4, 2012 | 1 p.m. |
| Location | Cary, N.C. | WakeMed Soccer Park |
| Multimedia | Gametracker | ESPNU (WatchESPN) | ACC Championship Page |
| Additional Information | Twitter | Facebook | Game Notes |
Nov. 3, 2012
CARY, N.C. – The No. 8 Virginia women’s soccer team looks to capture its second ACC Championship on Sunday as it faces No. 7 Maryland in the final of the 2012 ACC Tournament. Game time at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. is 1 p.m., and the game will be televised live on ESPNU.
Virginia is making its fourth appearance in the ACC Tournament final. The Cavaliers won the championship in 2004, downing North Carolina in a penalty kick shootout following a 1-1 tie. The Tar Heels defeated the Cavaliers in the 1990 and 2005 finals.
The Cavaliers enter the final with a 15-4-1 overall record. Virginia is riding a four-game winning streak, all against ranked opponents, outscoring its foes 15-3 in those contests. It marks just the second time in school history that the Cavaliers have defeated ranked opponents in four consecutive games (first time was 1991) and will look to defeat ranked opponents in five straight games for the first time in history with a victory over the Terrapins.
Virginia, the tournament’s No. 5 seed, reached the finals with a pair of wins over teams ranked in the top 10 nationally. Last week, the Cavaliers traveled to No. 8 North Carolina for the quarterfinals and defeated the Tar Heels 1-0 on an 11th-minute goal from ACC Offensive Player of the Year Caroline Miller (Rockville, Md.). In the semifinals on Friday at WakeMed Soccer Park, Virginia downed second-ranked Florida State, the ACC regular season champion, 4-2, as Morgan Brian(St. Simons Island, Ga.) had two goals and an assist.
Maryland is the tournament’s No. 2 seed after winning the tiebreaker for the four-way tie for second place in the league with Wake Forest, North Carolina and Virginia, as all four posted a 6-3-1 ACC record. The Terrapins (13-5-2 overall) bounced back from losing their final two regular season contests to down Miami 2-1 in overtime in the quarterfinals and Wake Forest 2-0 in the semifinals to reach the final.
Virginia leads the all-time series 26-5-4 and is 3-0-1 against Maryland in the ACC Tournament. The Cavaliers’ 26 wins over the Terrapins are their most against any opponent. The teams met in the regular season on Sept. 27 in College Park, a game that Virginia led for most of the game before Maryland scored three goals over the final 17 minutes to rally for a 3-1 win. It is the second consecutive year the teams have met in the postseason as the Cavaliers downed the Terrapins 2-0 in a 2011 ACC Tournament quarterfinal in Charlottesville.
The winner of the game will receive the ACC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The field of 64 will be announced on Monday and first round action will begin on Friday, Nov. 9.